Thousands protest in Lisbon against police violence

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By Sergio Goncalves, Miguel Pereira

LISBON (Reuters) -Thousands of people took to the main avenue of downtown Lisbon on Saturday to protest police violence, several days after a policeman shot a Cape Verde-born Portuguese resident, triggering a wave of unrest.

Rights group Vida Justa, which called the protest, changed the route to avoid clashes with supporters of the far-right anti-immigration party Chega, which held a separate smaller rally also in central ​​​​Lisbon in support of the police.

Violence had broken out on the multi-ethnic outskirts of the capital after Monday’s shooting of Odair Moniz, a 43-year-old chef, in the Amadora suburb. 

Demonstrators shouting “justice for Odair” carried posters bearing slogans such as “Stop killing us” and “Who to call when the killer is the police?”

Fabio Lima, 36, said “police violence is a common practice in our neighborhoods”. 

“The police, who are supposed to make us calm and safe, leave us anxious and scared. I’m much safer in my neighborhood without the presence of the police … This is not a normal reaction,” he said.

Vida Justa said “violence and police impunity” must stop and people in the poorest suburbs cannot “be treated as non-citizens”.

Gabriela Ferreira, 42, said it was “important to demand justice, to be on the streets and show that we are not afraid”.

“There is discrimination and some infiltration in the police forces of people who are openly racist, who may even have some fascist or extreme right-wing political links,” she said.

Last year, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said it was concerned about excessive use of force by police in Portugal, particularly “against people of African descent”.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Miguel Pereira; Editing by David Holmes)